- Ohio Department of Health said an infected child passed through Terminal A
- It is working with the CDC to identify people who might have been exposed
- READ MORE: Is America facing its biggest measles outbreak in years?
Travelers at Cincinnati airport in Kentucky may have been exposed to measles, health officials have warned.
The Ohio Department of Health issued the notice after a child from Montgomery County infected with the deadly disease passed through Terminal A of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport last week.
Those who traveled through that area between 5pm and 9pm on January 27 and 8:30pm and 11:30pm may have been exposed.
‘ODH is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other state and local health officials to identify people who might have been exposed, including contacting potentially exposed passengers on specific flights,’ the agency said.
Travelers at Cincinnati airport in Kentucky may have been exposed to measles, health officials have warned
The highlighted states have had cases of measles recorded this year
They said the warning was ‘out of an abundance of caution’. It is linked to Ohio’s first case of 2024 – the Montgomery County child.
Measles is very contagious. Children infected with the virus that causes the condition can spread it to others, up to three weeks before they develop symptoms.
The measles virus can live for up to two hours in the air after an infected person leaves the room, according to a Dayton & Montgomery County news release.
Nine out of 10 unvaccinated children who are exposed to measles will become infected.
Symptoms typically appear between seven to 14 days after contact with the virus.
It can cause a high fever that can be life-threatening, a red rash, cough, fatigue and watery eyes.
The rash usually starts on the face and behind the ears before spreading to the rest of the body, with the spots of the rash sometimes raised and join together to form blotchy patches. They’re not usually itchy.
On white skin, the rash looks brown, but it may be harder to see on brown and black skin.
In some cases, the infection can also cause sensitivity to light, pneumonia, and brain swelling.
One in five children who become infected end up in the hospital, with one in 15 developing serious complications like meningitis or sepsis. For every 1,000 children who get measles, one or two will die from it.
Approximately five percent of children with measles may develop pneumonia, which is the most frequent cause of death in young children with measles.
Additionally, around one in a thousand children who contract measles may experience brain swelling, or encephalitis, characterized by brain swelling, leading to convulsions and potential consequences such as deafness or intellectual disability.
Measles – a disease that until recently was thought to be consigned to history – has been making a resurgence across the US.
Georgia confirmed its first infected patient in nearly four years last month, making it the fifth state to declare cases of the ultra-contagious virus so far this year.
Delaware, Washington State, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have also reported cases, and doctors fear that this is just the tip of the iceberg, with more measles cases expected to crop up throughout 2024.
There have been a total of at least 15 cases reported this year alone, while 41 were confirmed last year, and there are indications that vaccination rates among children, the population at highest risk of illness, have reached new lows
Nationwide, nearly four percent of children entering kindergarten were unvaccinated against MMR, the lowest rate since the 2013-14 school year, raising the odds of seeing a tidal wave of infections.
